The formation of
the Transcaspian Railway cannot but have an important influence upon the
cotton-growing industry in Turkestan, running as it does through the
very heart of the best land in the country. It should be noted that
Bohkara annually produces over 50,000,000 pounds of cotton of the
herbaceous type, and Khiva, another district lying still further east of
those already mentioned, over 20,000,000 pounds.

Lying between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea, lies another district named
Transcaucasia, which yields large supplies of cotton. It has 100,000
acres devoted to cotton, giving over 20,000,000 pounds per annum. North
of Kokan, on the river Syr Daria, is a rising cotton district named
Khojend, where annually 3,000,000 pounds of cotton of the American type
are raised.

When we consider that the quantity of cotton carried by the Transcaspian
Railway since 1888 has more than quadrupled, and that in ten years the
quantity shipped has been increased from quarter of a million pounds to
over 72,000,000 pounds, we can quite appreciate the significance of the
statement that before long Russia will be able to grow all her own
cotton for the medium and lower numbers of yarns.

=Cotton-growing in China, Corea and Japan.=--Japan, the land of the
chrysanthemum, for many years now has been developing cotton-growing as
well as cotton manufacturing. From evidence which the cold type of the
Board of Trade gives, Japan bids fair to largely increase her trade with
India to the disadvantage of the present suppliers.

Cotton-growing has been practised for some centuries in Japan, but it
was not until the seventeenth century that anything like progress could
be reported. From that time to the present the growth has been gradually
on the increase.

Japan proper consists of the Islands of Niphon, Kiusiu, Shikoku, Yesso,
and an immense number of smaller islands. Cotton cultivation is carried
on mainly on the first three islands named, and in the following
districts:--San Indo, Wakayama, Osaka, Kuantoebene, Hitachi and Suo.

Taken as a whole, the cotton grown in the best areas is good, though
much of an inferior kind is produced. The most southerly area of
Wakayama in Niphon yields the best cotton of Japan.

The length of the fibre generally is much less than the herbaceous kind.
About 10 per cent. of the entire arable land is now under cultivation
for cotton. As a rule, methods and processes are of a primitive kind.

=Cotton-gro